[cfe-dev] Auto-generation of ASTMatchers predicates from source code, proof-of-concept

[Evgeny Panasyuk]

17.06.2012 22:44, Manuel Klimek wrote:
>
>     I see different approaches to implement such kind of tool:
>     1. Naive and straightforward way: just as external tool to
>     ASTMatchers, same method that I used in example above. Such
>     approach would result in some "knowledge" duplication, i.e. for
>     each predicate it would be additional some code in
>     predicate-generation tool.
>     2. More complex way, but with some "knowledge" reuse from
>     ASTMatchers. That approach would require re-describing predicates
>     with some higher/another abstraction, what would allow us to
>     generate both predicates and predicates-generation stuff from one
>     source of "knowledge". I am not sure if such approach could be
>     done in general, requires some research.
>
>
> My hunch is that for (2) the matchers would be sufficiently different 
> from what they are now, that it would end up like (1) anyway - insert 
> the obvious disclaimer that I might be wrong etc etc here :)
Yes, (2) would require re-implementation of matchers in other terms. But 
I think API of matchers will be not changed.

> At least for a first step I think (1) is the way to go - once we have 
> more experience with how the stuff is used, we can then try to figure 
> out how to generalize it...

Yes, I fully agree. (1) is a good step to start with, at least for 
prototype.

>>     I don't know whether you're aware, but in the tooling branch
>>     there's also a proof-of-concept implementation for dynamic
>>     matcher generation, and it might make sense to base your stuff on
>>     that.
>
>     Are you talking about dynamic parseMatcher (as in ast-query example)?
>
>
> Yep, that one...

Thank you for note.

>     Or maybe about some interactive (maybe gui) tool for building
>     predicates? I remember that Chandler mentioned about something
>     similar at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuIOGfcOH0k&t=27m56s
>     <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuIOGfcOH0k&t=27m56s>
>
>
> Now we're talking the next step :) Yea, having a GUI would be *great* 
> (and just so we're clear: with GUI I mean a web page :P)

And maybe AST database optimized for fast predicate matches :)

Best Regards,
Evgeny
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